1/48 Academy CH-46E

Gallery Article by Rodrigo Rendon on Sept 28 2011

 

I built this for Richard Steele, Operations Manager at Bob Hope Airport in California, USA. Richard was a crew member of this same ship: Flying Tiger, Modex 00; "Double Nuts." The Academy kit is an all around good kit, but in order to enhance the model I purchased the Big Red after market metal by Eduard. You can't go wrong with this stuff! The original plastic pieces for the armor plating on the fuselage as well as the boarding ladder were too thick. The metal parts add to the realism.

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For the better part of 8 months I added detail to the interior of the fuselage. I added electrical wiring inside (although nearly impossible to see once finished), MRE boxes, water jugs, a 12-pack of Bud Light beer and a Maxim magazine to add realism. The model was painted with Medium Grey, Light Ghost Grey, and Dark Ghost Grey. I printed an instrument chart off my printer to scale and placed it on the instrument panel on the co-pilot side. Weathering was done by pre-shading with black paint, then adding pastel chalks. The rotors were painted primer, gloss black, Alclad Aluminum, then with Tamiya Nato Black. To get the "worn" effect on the leading edge of the rotor blades I dipped a make-up sponge in alcohol and rubbed away the dark paint on the leading edge until it showed the aluminum under coat.

I bought the wooden base at a local art supply store and painted it according in modern ship deck markings. To get the anti-skid coating effect I applied Tamiya's Diorama Texture Paint: Pavement Effect. This stuff is awesome, just brush it on with lots of coats and many strokes and you get the same look of modern USN decks. The deck was painted white, yellow and Tamiya German Grey.  I weathered the deck with pastel chalk. The tie-down padeyes and chains are also metal after market products. The Flying Tigers patch was printed from my printer onto decal paper. I masked an outline of the decal on the display base and airbrushed Future floor wax. After the decal dried I hit it with flat dull coat. I hope you guys enjoy the final result, I know Staff Seargent Steele did!

Rodrigo Rendon

      

Photos and text © by Rodrigo Rendon